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k a May Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
May 1, 2025
May is an exciting month! National MATHCOUNTS is the second week of May in Washington D.C. and our Founder, Richard Rusczyk will be presenting a seminar, Preparing Strong Math Students for College and Careers, on May 11th.

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[*]May 21st, 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Mathcamp 2025 Qualifying Quiz Part 2 Math Jam, Problems 5 and 6, Canada/USA Mathcamp staff will discuss solutions to Problems 5 and 6 of the 2025 Mathcamp Qualifying Quiz![/list]
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0 replies
jlacosta
May 1, 2025
0 replies
Combo resources
Fly_into_the_sky   1
N a few seconds ago by Fly_into_the_sky
Ok so i never did combinatorics in my life :oops: and i am willing to be able to do P1/P4 combos (or even more)
So yeah how can i start from scratch?
Remark:i don't want compuational combo resources :noo:
1 reply
Fly_into_the_sky
7 minutes ago
Fly_into_the_sky
a few seconds ago
Very odd geo
Royal_mhyasd   2
N 28 minutes ago by Royal_mhyasd
Source: own (i think)
Let $\triangle ABC$ be an acute triangle with $AC>AB>BC$ and let $H$ be its orthocenter. Let $P$ be a point on the perpendicular bisector of $AH$ such that $\angle APH=2(\angle ABC - \angle ACB)$ and $P$ and $C$ are on different sides of $AB$, $Q$ a point on the perpendicular bisector of $BH$ such that $\angle BQH = 2(\angle ACB-\angle BAC)$ and $R$ a point on the perpendicular bisector of $CH$ such that $\angle CRH=2(\angle ABC - \angle BAC)$ and $Q,R$ lie on the opposite side of $BC$ w.r.t $A$. Prove that $P,Q$ and $R$ are collinear.
2 replies
Royal_mhyasd
Yesterday at 6:10 PM
Royal_mhyasd
28 minutes ago
Polynomial Application Sequences and GCDs
pieater314159   46
N 35 minutes ago by cursed_tangent1434
Source: ELMO 2019 Problem 1, 2019 ELMO Shortlist N1
Let $P(x)$ be a polynomial with integer coefficients such that $P(0)=1$, and let $c > 1$ be an integer. Define $x_0=0$ and $x_{i+1} = P(x_i)$ for all integers $i \ge 0$. Show that there are infinitely many positive integers $n$ such that $\gcd (x_n, n+c)=1$.

Proposed by Milan Haiman and Carl Schildkraut
46 replies
pieater314159
Jun 19, 2019
cursed_tangent1434
35 minutes ago
c^a + a = 2^b
Havu   10
N 37 minutes ago by Havu
Find $a, b, c\in\mathbb{Z}^+$ such that $a,b,c$ coprime, $a + b = 2c$ and $c^a + a = 2^b$.
10 replies
1 viewing
Havu
May 10, 2025
Havu
37 minutes ago
2017 Mathirang Mathibay - Orals, Tier 2 Easy
elpianista227   3
N 2 hours ago by LilKirb
Let $M, S, A$ be the roots of the polynomial $f(x) = 127x^3 + 1729x + 8128$. Find $(M + S)^3 + (S+ A)^3 + (A + M)^3$
3 replies
elpianista227
Today at 5:43 AM
LilKirb
2 hours ago
Vincentian Numbers
Darealzolt   9
N 2 hours ago by cheltstudent
A number is called \(Vincentian\) if within that number exists a digit \(k \in \{1,2,3,4,5,6,7\}\) that appears exactly \(k^2\) times in that number, hence find the number of \(Vincentian\) that consist of 4 digits (Numbers may contain a 0)
9 replies
Darealzolt
Yesterday at 2:41 AM
cheltstudent
2 hours ago
Original Problem - Floors
NicoPlusAki_2011   2
N 3 hours ago by trangbui
Keanu Reeves is being rushed into labor at the Penchick Hospital, which has exactly 45² emergency rooms, each numbered from 1 to 2025. The hospital is so overcrowded that only rooms with special "triage resonance" are unoccupied. These rooms are defined mysteriously by the Resonance Index Rule:

A room number r has triage resonance if and only if the floor of log base 3 of r, minus 1, is a prime number.

Keanu Reeves will give birth in any of these resonant rooms, but only if she finds one.

Question: What is the sum of all room numbers in which Keanu Reeves can’t give birth?
2 replies
NicoPlusAki_2011
3 hours ago
trangbui
3 hours ago
[Sipnayan 2023 JHS] Written Round, Easy, #3:
LilKirb   1
N 3 hours ago by elizhang101412
Let $\alpha,$ $\beta,$ $\gamma,$ be the real roots of
\[x^3 + 7x^2 -6x - 13 = 0\]Find $\alpha^2 + \beta^2 + \gamma^2$
1 reply
LilKirb
3 hours ago
elizhang101412
3 hours ago
[PMO17 Qualifying III.5] Roots a+2/a-2
LilKirb   2
N 4 hours ago by LilKirb
Let $\alpha$, $\beta$, and $\gamma$ be the roots of $x^3 - 4x - 8 = 0.$ Find the numerical value of the expression:
\[\frac{\alpha + 2}{\alpha - 2} + \frac{\beta + 2}{\beta - 2} + \frac{\gamma + 2}{\gamma - 2}\]Answer
2 replies
LilKirb
Today at 6:18 AM
LilKirb
4 hours ago
Find the value of a + b
BadNick   3
N 4 hours ago by sqing
Consider the real numbers $ a $ and $ b $ such that $ (a + b) (a + 1) (b + 1) = 2 $ and $ a ^ 3 + b ^ 3 = 1 $. Find the value of $ a + b $
3 replies
BadNick
Jan 10, 2020
sqing
4 hours ago
An Ineq.
Cirno-fumofumo   0
4 hours ago
For any a>0,x>0,prove that 1<(sqrt(1/(1+x)))+(sqrt(1/(1+a)))+sqrt(ax/(ax+8))<2
(I'm a beginner,so I don't know how to use latex…)
0 replies
Cirno-fumofumo
4 hours ago
0 replies
Problem involving prime numbers
Frank007   7
N 5 hours ago by Rayvhs
Find all primes $p$ and $q$ such that:

$p^5 + p^3 + 2 =q^2 -q$
7 replies
Frank007
Oct 22, 2020
Rayvhs
5 hours ago
Find the minimum value
zolfmark   5
N 5 hours ago by Mathzeus1024
If 3x+4y=5, then what is the minimum value of x^2+y^2+9
5 replies
zolfmark
Jan 25, 2024
Mathzeus1024
5 hours ago
find the value,please…
Cirno-fumofumo   0
5 hours ago
cos(9π/13)*cos(3π/13)+cos(3π/13)*cos(π/13)+cos(9π/13)*cos(π/13)=?
0 replies
Cirno-fumofumo
5 hours ago
0 replies
Sets With a Given Property
oVlad   4
N Apr 13, 2025 by oVlad
Source: Romania TST 2025 Day 1 P4
Determine the sets $S{}$ of positive integers satisfying the following two conditions:
[list=a]
[*]For any positive integers $a, b, c{}$, if $ab + bc + ca{}$ is in $S$, then so are $a + b + c{}$ and $abc$; and
[*]The set $S{}$ contains an integer $N \geqslant 160$ such that $N-2$ is not divisible by $4$.
[/list]
Bogdan Blaga, United Kingdom
4 replies
oVlad
Apr 9, 2025
oVlad
Apr 13, 2025
Sets With a Given Property
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G H BBookmark kLocked kLocked NReply
Source: Romania TST 2025 Day 1 P4
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oVlad
1746 posts
#1 • 3 Y
Y by nbasrl, cubres, farhad.fritl
Determine the sets $S{}$ of positive integers satisfying the following two conditions:
  1. For any positive integers $a, b, c{}$, if $ab + bc + ca{}$ is in $S$, then so are $a + b + c{}$ and $abc$; and
  2. The set $S{}$ contains an integer $N \geqslant 160$ such that $N-2$ is not divisible by $4$.
Bogdan Blaga, United Kingdom
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internationalnick123456
135 posts
#2 • 2 Y
Y by bin_sherlo, farhad.fritl
Claim 1. $S$ contains least one element that is divisible by $4$ and at least $40$.
Proof. If $4\mid N$, then the statement is trivial.
Now, consider $N=2m+1$ with $m\geq 80$. Since $N = m\cdot 1 + m\cdot1 + 1\cdot1$, we must have $m$ and $m+2$ both in $S$. If $m$ is even, then either $m$ or $m+2$ are divisible by $4$ and at least $80$, satisfying the condition. Otherwise, both of them are odd, and one of them must be congruent to $1$ modulo $4$. In that case, we again find an element in $S$ that is divisible by $4$ and at least $40$.
Claim 2. If $n\in S$ and $4\mid n$, then $n-4\in S$.
Proof. Let $n=4a = (a-1)\cdot 2+(a-1)\cdot 2 + 2\cdot 2$. Then $4(a-1)\in S$, which implies $n-4\in S$.
Claim 3. $4\mathbb N\subset S$.
Proof. By Claim 1 and Claim 2 we get $40\in S$. Now, suppose $8a\in S$ for some $a\geq 3$. Then $(a-2)\cdot 4 + (a-2)\cdot 4  + 4\cdot 4\in S\Rightarrow 16(a-2)\in S$. Since $8\cdot 5\in S$, we can repeat this process indefinitely to generate larger and larger multiples of 8 in $S$. This implies that $S$ contains arbitrarily large multiples of $4$. Hence, by Claim 2, the desired result follows.
Claim 4. $S=\mathbb N$.
Proof. By Claim 3, we have $2\cdot (a - 1) + 2\cdot (a-1) + 2\cdot 2\in S$ for any $a>1$
$\Rightarrow a+3 = a-1 + 2 + 2\in S,\forall a>1$. Hence, $\mathbb N\cap [4,+\infty)\subset S$.
We easily derive $S=\mathbb N$. (qed)
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nbasrl
307 posts
#3 • 3 Y
Y by internationalnick123456, RaduAndreiLecoiu, farhad.fritl
The above is pretty much the official solution and the one I had submitted. Probably the best problem I've composed, though beauty is in the eye of the beholder isn't it? Still, I hope people in the contest enjoyed working on it.

I have a few remarks if anyone is interested. First, the origin of the problem is twofold:
  1. For a long time I've had an idea for a problem along the following lines: if $E\in S$ then $F,G \in S$ where $F$ is "generally smaller" than $E$ and $G$ is "generally larger" than $E$, so that you can go smaller and larger and possibly cover all of the domain.
  2. I was looking at which positive integers can be written as a sum $ab+bc+ca$, for some $a,b,c$. More on this below.

This problem then eventually came out of these. Regarding the first point, the initial version of the problem had $ab+bc+ac\in S$ impliying $a,b,c,abc\in S$ instead of $a+b+c$ and $abc$. The same steps apply in that case if $N$ is divisible by $4$, however I haven't managed to prove it in general for all odd $N$. If anyone has a solution for this modified version, I'd be interested to see it!

A couple more remarks:
  • The conclusion is still valid if $N<160$ except for $N\leq 37$ and $N\in \{41,43,49\}$ (as verified by a computer search) but I don't think a clean general argument can be made.
  • The condition $N\not\equiv 2\pmod{4}$ is crucial here and here's why a general argument for that case couldn't exist. Going back to the second point above, it can be proven that any number $N\geq 1$ can be written as a sum $N=ab+bc+ca$ except for at most $19$ numbers. These are: $1,2,6,10,22,30,42,58,70,78,102, 130, 190, 210, 330, 462$. Note that all of them (except $1$) are $2$ mod $4$. Now here's the most interesting part: there are $18$ numbers on that list and it's not known if the 19th exists. If the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis is true, then there is no 19th number. See here for more details.
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flower417477
380 posts
#4
Y by
So why is this problem proposed by someone from UK,not Romania?
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oVlad
1746 posts
#5 • 2 Y
Y by aidan0626, farhad.fritl
flower417477 wrote:
So why is this problem proposed by someone from UK,not Romania?
Rest assured, the author is a romanian person. But even if they weren't, what's the issue?
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